The eight-month project undertaken by CFAR in 2005-06 to enhance the capacity of grassroots organizations to work within the PCPNDT Act and strengthen insights and perceptions on the issue of the girl child in order to build fresh partnerships and collaborations in Rajasthan on the issue of sex determination and sex selection was extended to the financial year 2006-07.

Capacity building workshops were organized in three zones- Jaipur (central), Bikaner (west) and Udaipur (south) to reach out to grassroots organizations operating in the border and remote areas to share learnings and experiences derived from earlier initiatives. And strengthen their commitment and understanding of the PCPNDT Act and evolve a common plan of action. It brought together over 70 district level civil society organizations, State and District appropriate authorities (CMHOs), petitioners, doctors, radiologists, lawyers, demographers, representatives of government agencies and statutory bodies, NGOs working in the areas of girl child, violence against women, child rights, health and female foeticide and CBOs.

At the workshops they were familiarized with the law, with sessions on retrieving the Census Data, group work, role-plays and experience sharing. Participants were informed on how to use the clauses incorporated in the law and socially monitor unethical medical practitioners who violated the law, the role of investigative authorities and the power vested in Appropriate Authorities and Advisory Committees.

This process enabled CFAR to identify organizations and individuals willing to engage with and work at the grassroots level on the issue of sex selection. Form an informal network to augment sustained involvement on this issue and initiate dialogues with the representatives of the community, officials at the district and sub-district level and make them accountable to the process of implementing the law.

Consequent to this CFAR decided to undertake a more intensive approach to enhance the capacities of all implementers of the law including government, grassroots and civil society organizations and professionals such as doctors to effectively implement the law in six districts of Rajasthan - Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Sirohi, Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jhunjhunu. A lead NGO was selected in each district and entrusted with three broad activities: conducting a base line survey of ultrasound clinics to ascertain the level of law enforcement in the district and understand the challenges faced by stakeholders in trying to implement the law. Build capacities of NGOs/AC/AA and conducting medical audit and training workshops for clinics/doctors.

The base line survey revealed that: Sirohi had 12 ultrasound clinics, Bharatpur- 29, Bhilwara-29, Jhunjhunu-32, Barmer-3 and Jaisalmer-3 but this district had a low sex rate because of female infanticide and girl child neglect. Advisory committee meetings were not held and even if they were members were not informed of them. Most members were ignorant of their responsibilities and obligations. Authorities were weary of implementing the law because of strong political interference. In Bharatpur doctors were avoiding doing the tests on local women. But they were doing them on women from neighboring areas who were brought to them by agents. Form-F required to be filled by the doctor conducting the test and the pregnant woman were either not available or not filled properly.

Given this scenario CFAR conducted capacity building workshops across the six districts for concerned authorities to make them aware of their obligations and responsibilities as implementers of the law. Motivate and enable lead NGOs and civil society organizations to scale up and sustain efforts and share the findings of the baseline survey. Consequent to this there was consensus among participants that ultrasound clinics were being misused and various stakeholders set commitments for themselves to check misuse.

As a result of this first ever meetings of advisory committees were held in several districts, irregularities of ultrasound clinics were discussed and several clinics across these districts were either shut down or served show cause notices for violating the PCPNDT Act. It was also decided that all clinics would henceforth send in the form-F that was required under the Act to be submitted to the CMHO by the 5^th of each month.

Meanwhile a medical audit of the form-F done by CFAR in three districts revealed that forms were often not available. Significant numbers of clinics were not sending them to the CNHO and in a majority of cases were not supported by the required documents of the doctor performing the test and the declaration of the pregnant woman. The consensus among stakeholders was that their commitment was meaningless if all the implementing authorities were not proactive and responsive towards the issue.

CFAR also conducted one-day capacity building workshops for service providers to familiarize them with the law and inform them of the responsibilities entrusted to them by the Act. Participants included doctors, clinic owners, lawyers, representatives of NGOs and CBOs, advisory committee members and district appropriate authorities.

By March 2007 proactive response by these stakeholders was visible in all these districts.